Every day in our lives we have to make choices, sometimes for minor things and sometimes for major ones.
As those choices work their ways out we sometimes consider if we had good judgment when we made our decision.
As I see it there are two or three basic kinds of decisions you make in life and with both of them there is good reason to give yourself a bit of a break over things (though of course there are exceptions to the rule, as always).
The first kind of decision is the deeply considered one. The kind of decision where you sit down and evaluate things, take into account as many factors as you can. You weigh the good and the bad, the risk and reward and then reach your conclusion. From there the outcome is either good or bad, based on a wide variety of factors, many of which are beyond your control.
It seems to me that you shouldn’t hit yourself too hard, if at all, when these kinds of decisions go wrong. You took your time to evaluate things as much as possible, you used all of your experience as well as that of those around you and you finally made a choice. If it went bad then you just have to accept it. We are all human beings and nobody is perfect nor can we see into the future.
Now the second kind of decision is the split second type, the one where you have little or no time to consider things and just have to go with your gut.
I think this type of choice is even easier to excuse. When you have to make a choice and don’t have the luxury of reflection then it is not your fault if things don’t work out. Life is sometimes an adventure and you just need to enjoy the ride and accept what happens.
Of course not everything in life is black and white. Sometimes you have a situation where you could have taken time to ponder but instead you made a snap decision. Or sometimes you know what the decision should be but there is an easier path and you decide to take it, knowing that the choice is probably a bad idea.
When it comes to these kind of circumstances it’s a bit harder to deflect blame but I think the rule that we are all human applies, though certainly you would want to learn from these mistakes and try to avoid them in the future.
Now I’m not suggesting that you can’t have a little regret over things that went wrong. After all part of being human is feeling a wide range of emotions and regret is one of them. It’s not a good idea to bottle up things and venting can be good therapy. But once you’ve taken a little time to beat up on yourself then you need to move on. The past is the past as they say.
So what do you think dear readers ? Do you find yourself traveling that road of guilt more often than you should ? How do you deal with it ?